In the morning before the jury entered the room, federal
prosecutor Reed Brodsky asked Judge Holwell and the defense for a
favor: could the government interrupt Rajiv Goel's testimony for
two witnesses who would not be able to make it to New York next
week?

Both parties allowed it, and, due to impending trips for both
Courtney and myself, we thanked our lucky stars that Lloyd would
be out of town come March 28th, and had to be called to
testify this week.

The government questioned Rajiv Goel for about an hour. He was
dismissed for the day, and then a voice came over the PA system:
"The government calls its next witness, Lloyd C. Blankfein." And
all heads in the courtroom turned backward, and there he was,
standing meekly in front of the big wooden doors.

Blankfein wore blue tie, a white shirt and a dark suit.

He looked and talked to the jury many times as he gave testimony.
During sidebars, he
watched them. When he said the word "corporate," there was a
Brooklyn twang. His voice is raspy.

And if you watched recordings of the Goldman chief giving
congressional testimony last year, recall his posture -- it was
similar in the stand yesterday: leaning slightly forward,
wrinkled brow, head turned slightly to the side. The difference,
however, is that this time around, Blankfein was playing the good
guy. And this time around, he was far more relaxed.

At times he answered questions so quickly, Judge Holwell or an
attorney reminded him to let the question end before he began.
But as the morning turned to afternoon, Blankfein relaxed. He
even bantered with Raj's lead attorney, John Dowd -- and later,
they even shared a hug.

Of course, that's not a side that proletarians like us get to see
up close very often, if at all.

Lloyd The Comedian

During a series of questions on earnings in October, 2008,
Blankfein explained why it was so important to be in contact with
board members about mid-quarter revenue, at that specific time.
Goldman was down. And Goldman was never down. It was shaping up
to be the bank's first ever negative quarter. And worse,
consensus in October 2008 was that the bank was making money.
When figures were released, it would come as a shock to the
market and everyone else.

What did the P&L statement for mid-October, to be discussed
at the next board meeting, show, prosecutors asked Lloyd.

"We were losing money," he said.

The prosecutor asked about the significance of that.

"We generally make money," Blankfein said.

And everyone laughed, including him. It was the tone.

Other smiley moments involved Dowd asking Blankfein to look at a
WSJ article as evidence. Dowd asked if he recognized it.
Blankfein said no.

"Surely you read the WSJ," Dowd said.

"Sometimes," Blankfein said after a long pause, grinning. "Often.
Not always."

"Be careful, they're here," Dowd said. And of course, more
chuckling.

Lloyd At Work

During his testimony, we also gleaned some insight into how
Blankfein runs his ship: he gets Profit and Loss statements at
the end of every business day, via email and voicemail. He admits
he rarely reads the email, and garners the necessary information
from the latter.

He also talks regularly with his board members in a one-on-one
context, often "offline" he said. This gives the director
opportunities to talk with Blankfein and raise concerns outside
of the hearing of other board members.

He talked about the bank doing work "for the world;" he was
humble (and shrewd, of course) when the defense asked him about
Goldman Sachs' vaunted status in the rankings of financial
service firms -- reducing its success to, "we're the largest
investment bank of a small category;" he joked that "he aspires"
to talk to all 10,000 shareholders but he doesn't always get the
time.